Who Is Bobby Jindal?
By Jennn Fusion | Related entries in VeepWhen I first caught the buzz about Bobby Jindal, I thought it was nothing more than a pipe dream. “Who is this guy anyway?” I wondered. “And who is he to really compete with the likes of Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee for the #2 spot?” I was reading the India Times and thought it just sounded like more of the same “Wouldn’t it be COOL if we had a black president or a woman president?” chatter.
However, after closer inspection, there are a few qualifications that’d make him the right McCain VEEP at the right time…
- He was appointed secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) in 1996, where he turned the $400 million DHH defecit into a $220 surplus. This shows that he knows the ins and out of the health care system, which the American public so desperately wants reformed. This also shows that he’s a conservative spender and knows how to balance a budget.
- In 1998, he was appointed executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission where he investigated the Future of Medicare (another area we’d want the next administration to fix).
- In 2001, he worked as the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- In 2005, he spent a term in the House of Representatives. There he worked on several worthwhile committees: Homeland Security, Resources and Education & the Workforce. (Since McCain is “tough on terror,” the Department of Homeland Security credentials complement the ticket nicely.)
- As governor of Louisiana, Jindal ran on a platform of “ethics reform” (which is very much akin to what McCain is running on now with his “straight-talkin, pork-cutting” agenda). Jindal passed his reform measures regarding transparent financial disclosures, eliminated lobbyist-funded meals/sporting event tickets for public officials and earned Louisians a 99/100 score from the Center for Public Integrity.
As far as policy goes, he sees eye to eye with McCain on a number of issues. He’s Hindu by birth but a Roman-Catholic convert with staunchly conservative pro-life views and could help draw undecided Evangelical voters. Imagine — Rush Limbaugh called Jindal “the next Ronald Reagan!” (Squeezing a compliment out of that guy is like getting the Democrats and Republicans to actually agree upon and pass a law.)
Some people say that Jindal’s been busy with the McCain camp and cite his absence from the governorship as evidence that he’s campaigning for VP. Ruminations intensified when John McCain took a trip down to Louisiana on April 24th and spoke alongside Jindal. If you feel one’s Internet presence is indicative of their ambitions, just take a gander at Jindal’s website and how surprisingly in-depth and professional it is. (Adding a “Jindal for VP” customization would be a quick and easy edit.)
Although, only one year into his first term as governor, it seems that Jindal would be making a hasty exit from his responsibilities when Louisiana needs him most. Some speculate that running for the #2 position could destroy his chances for a future presidential run too. Jindal has already lost a bid for governor (2003) and if a McCain-Jindal ticket were to bomb, he’d probably have to kiss his political future goodbye.
For VEEP updates and profiles, be sure to check out VicePresidents.com!
This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 and is filed under Veep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
He’s doing awesome for Louisiana after all they have been through, I predict he will be president one day, but the GOP should keep him in the farm leagues right now. He’s that un-hittable 18-year old curve-ball thrower in AAA who you dont want to bring up to quickly.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Converted to Catholicism from Hinduism, and pro-lifer who has the support of Limbaugh, so we know he’s of below average intelligence.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
This guy’s a mile wide and an inch deep. Once you get past the veneer of the glittery resume, Gov. Jindal has little substance.
Sure he pushed through some ethics reforms but refused to have the same kind of transparency for his office. Then, they slipped in a little provision to gut ethics enforcement.
That’s Jindal: shiny on the outside, rotten on the inside.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Avinash,
Being a hindu myself, I ask why India has immense caste issues and untouchability? What has hinduism done for the masses? Nothing.
Jindal found his spritual awakening in Christ and you should just accept that. I am democrat but will vote Republican if Jindal is picked. How about this? You and your dumb hussain obama can invite ahmadinejad and have iftaar party meanwhile. Are you one of those Indians who came here to drive a taxi?
Picking Jindal would mean 1 Million Indian Americans will Fork on an average $100 to bring McCain camp an extra $100 Million.
May 24th, 2008 at 11:18 am
h_l_j: I agree that Hindusim hasn’t done much for the masses, no religion has, religion is not a way to solve the problems of the people, since most believe that you need to fight with your neighbor rather than work in peace, but at least I haven’t heard the name of Shiva or Vishnu being invoked by hindu brahmins as a reason to try and set off judgement day by going to war in the middle east, a fight between three groups that all worship the same god, yet for some stupid reason still fight over religion, no i’ll take hinduism over the religions of the abrahamic god.
Also any Indian foolish enough to follow the republicans, and especially McSame, whose economic plans got four pinnochios from WaPo by the way, not to mention is projected to create a 780 billion dollar deficit by his magical 2013, deserves to lose their money.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I suspect that, even if McCain were to offer, Jindal would prefer to wait a little longer before trying for national office. Which is rather too bad — I would so enjoy watching the “Obama is a secret Muslim” nutcases complain about “Jindal is a secret Hindu” rumors.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Tyagi I know you belong to Brahmin caste. I am a brahmin too but I loathe hinduism for its blind disregard for millions of disenfranchised lower class and still keeps them down on the name of dharma and karma.
I will never convert to any other religion but to a fair minded person like me, I can say Christianity is far far far fair and apt for a country like India and it gives a chance for the lowest class to rise up. Go to India once a while and see all the good work World Vision and evangelists are doing. I saw many good deeds there. If you read the Bible you will appreciate it eventually. By the way,
Why cant a hindu be a republican?. Republicans and Hindu Indians have a lot in common. We are largely conservative, reform minded, we like less govt, we respect military and are strongly pro defence, we hate taxes, we love FAMILY and we disapprove abortion, we hate divorce, we like family values like marriage and such.
You must be crazy to vote liberal because Hindus aint liberal at all.
I would have voted democrat if Hillary (because I love women leaders) had come but I cannot vote for Obama who has no experience and I highly suspect has a secret muslim agenda and would harm relations with India, Israel and Tibet.
All my Hindu friends are voting McCain since Hillary lost. All of them. So dont waste your vote. Join the republican party and get your moksha.
May 25th, 2008 at 2:50 am
I wonder what branch of Hinduism you belong to, your ideas on Hinduism are very conservative Vedanata, which is only one school of Hindu astika philosophy, to say Hindus are not liberal is false, perhaps certain branches are not, but the fact that there are mutliple schools of Hindusim, from polytheism, to monotheism to atheism based beliefs, Hinduism is very liberal as a wide range of beliefs can be ascribed to “hinduism”. In fact your views on the religious caste system are false, if you read the original scriptures they allowed for movement within the caste system, in fact the religious caste system was intended to be merit based. The cultural caste system which has arisen is not what was intended in the scriptures.
Christianity on the other hand is very rigid and inflexible, you either believe what they say or you are going to hell, a religious doctrine which espouses bigotry, murder and mysoginy among other things. Any good done is heavily imbalanced by the evil done by that religion, a religion, that to this very day is still an impediment to science, a religion that is one of the excuses for the current war we are fighting.
No religion will not bring up the masses, education will bring them up, teaching people to read, to use a computer, sending them to school and then to college, that is the path to raising the poor up. Spriituality is something to contemplate as a philisophical endeavour, not something to be looked to as a solution to poverty.
May 25th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
“However, after closer inspection”
I hate to break it to you but your inspection was not close enough. He may have turned a deficit into a surplus at DHH. However, he did so by cutting needed services and closing clinics, making it harder for people who needed health care to obtain it, increasing the burden on the system in the long term. I spoke with many medical professionals about Jindal’s record and the consensus was that his cuts made it harder for them to give people needed medical care. This is probably one of the reasons why Louisiana’s health ranking dropped during his tenure. Also, he wasn’t running a for-profit entity where running a surplus would be viewed as good. He was running a government department, letting people go without healthcare so his political resume would “look good”. He should have stopped cutting once the budget was in the black, and not millions of dollars into it.
And if you view many of the recent articles about Jindal on ethics reform, most of which can be found by looking at my website, you will see that his ethics reforms are just a window dressing. He took advantage of the political climate of people seeking “change” in how we do business in Louisiana and made people believe that he could do it (when those of us who had paid attention to him and his voting record knew he had no intentions to make any real meaningful ethics reforms)
When he was in the House, he voted to weaken house ethics standards for Tom Delay.
Some of his ethics changes wont take place till 2012.
When a Republican in the louisiana legislature put forward a bill that would have increased transparency on the Governors office, Jindal balked and the reason given by his executive council (Jimmy Faircloth, a man with his own ethical issues) was that the bill would not allow Jindal to meet with businesses behind closed doors.
Jindal claimed that getting free tickets was unethical. But when push came to shove, his cheif of staff was able to get free tickets to the Hannah Montana concert. When asked why, Jindal said he would “follow the law” (the same law he felt was unethical).
Jindal did pass some changes to the ethics code, one of them making it harder for the government to enforce the laws! Now, if it is harder to convict someone of an ethics charge, then how can the ethical reforms be meaningful?
Jindal also collected over $130K in campaign contributions from one man (via an unethical, but legal, process called bundling) and that man’s company recieved a $14 million grant. THis just proves that Jindal, and Louisiana, are still for sale.
The information on why Jindal is a fraud is out there for anyone who wants to read it. Unfortunately, many people want to continue to believe that Jindal is wonderful and can do no wrong.
May 25th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
[...] at Donklephantgives her explanation of who Bobby Jindal is. Unfortunately, the site lists what can only be [...]
May 26th, 2008 at 6:02 am
[...] pattern often compels looking through a filter.  http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/may/12tps.htm http://donklephant.com/2008/05/23/who-is-bobby-jindal/  May a broader sense [...]
May 26th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
tyagi
reading your reply make me think and I am glad you will be voting republican when come nov. You may vote Hillary if she gets nominated else be a good indian boy and vote republican.
be a good indian boy ok? i bet your dad and mom ar voting republican this time because McCain is your choice since Hillary is out.
When you are older like me, you will understand why Republicans are better than Democrats for this great country.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:46 am
h_l_j:
Any party that expands the debt like the GOP has, is a plague on this country, but you go vote GOP if you want, if McCain is elected president, and that’s a big if, you’ll get to see up close how foolish you were when the debt expands to crushing levels, meanwhile i’ll be investing all my money overseas and in oil (when McCain attacks Iran i’ll make a huge profit as oil jumps near $300 a barrel).
May 28th, 2008 at 12:31 am
good deal tyagi
mixing business acumen and politics is a republican trait. you are certainly a republican paduwan. Looks like Jindal might be the VP afterall. I feel it strongly. I think Huckster has 50% chance and Jindal 50%. Wait and see..
By the way, debt is not everything. Security of our country is primary for a economy to run and citizens to thrive. Money can be made or lost but security cannot be gambled. Do you trust a lawyer or a POW?
good luck with oil investments. You are correct, Iran will be defanged one day. Its envitable and will happen. Buddy, Israel is the only true friend of USA and India in the middle east. The rest all secret supporters of Pakistan and Taliban.
McCain will win. Hispanics,Jews,Indians, Asians, Hillarys Women Fans,Vets,ArabChristians will put him over the top.
I secretly wish McCain pick Hillary as a VP pick. That would be something.